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Rights groups: Flotilla to break Gaza blockade

Associated Press
6:32 a.m. EDT August 12, 2014

FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2008, file photo, masked Palestinian militants from Islamic Jihad place homemade rockets before later firing them into Israel on the outskirts of Gaza City. In 2009, a prominent human rights group said there was "strong evidence" that Gaza's Hamas rulers committed war crimes by allowing militants to fire rockets from the territory, killing civilians in Israel. The third Gaza war is playing out very much like the first one some five years ago: We are now at the stage where the harrowing civilian toll in Gaza is at the center of the discourse, eclipsing the rocket attacks by Hamas militants which are the reason for the Israeli assault. In 2009, Hamas was firing relatively small projectiles with minimal range, mostly aimed at border communities surrounding the blockaded Gaza Strip. Now Hamas is firing at Tel Aviv, which is 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the strip, and even at some cities beyond. (AP Photo/Ashraf Amra, File)(Photo: Ashraf Amra, AP)

ISTANBUL – A group of human rights organizations said Tuesday they are organizing a flotilla of vessels that will attempt to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza later this year.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition said it plans to sail to Gaza “during 2014.” It did not specify how many vessels would participate, but said the flotilla was “a reflection of the growing worldwide solidarity with the Palestinian people; from the U.S. to Malaysia, from Scandinavia to South Africa.”

The group said the boats would also be carrying “Palestinian commercial products purchased by buyers worldwide to complete the work of Gaza’s Ark,” a cargo boat built by the FFC and Palestinians that the group said was bombed on July 11.

It said it will also organize demonstrations in ports worldwide in coming months.

“Along with other projects, the initiative will support the right of Palestinians to operate international marine lines in and out of the port of Gaza,” the group said.

The group organized two previous flotillas, in 2010 and in 2011. During the first, Israeli forces stormed the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, killing nine people on board. The incident led to a breakdown in Turkish-Israeli relations.

Israel says it imposed the blockade in 2007 to prevent Palestinian militants bringing weapons into Gaza.